Title: Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

Pub. Date: February 4, 2014

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

This will be a spoiler free review.

I’ve owned this book for 6 years and I’ve only just now read it. I bought it the day it came out and I have no excuses for why it took me so long to read it. I loved Cinder and Scarlet I just never got around to reading Cress until now. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. I will say that it was a bit of a struggle to remember what happened, but slowly things started to come back to me.

I loved this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thorne is my new book boyfriend. I loved him, and I love characters like him.

Cress is adorable and I love her.

Together they’re just so damn cute.

I’m a sucker for Rapunzel retellings and I don’t think there are enough in YA. Tangled is pretty much my favorite Disney movie, so I was pretty damn excited to finally read this book. It didn’t disappoint. I really liked that it followed the OG version of Rapunzel – well, I think it’s the OG version. It’s definitely not the Disney version.

I will say that I was a little bored at some parts. I fell in love with Thorne so quickly that I just wanted to read the parts with him and Cress. I found myself not really caring about Cinder and the other POVs. As the book carried on, I became more and more invested, but I could have easily read an entire book of just Cress and Thorne journeying together and falling for each other. I legit went and made my phone background a fanart pic of the two of them, because 1) I love the art and have for a while and 2) I was obsessed the moment Cress plays out their epic romance in her mind.

Cress was truly relatable in that moment. Who can blame her?

I might be jealous of a fictional character again. Oops.

I really enjoyed Cress’s character arc in this book. She goes from timid to pretty confident. I got all warm, fuzzy and giddy whenever she sidled up next to Thorne. I also loved their height difference. I love how protective he was of her and vice versa.

I do wish that there might have been more romance – but I’ve been reading a lot of heavy romance books lately, so it’s on my mind. Also, I’m a sucker for Rapunzel and Tangled and epic loves and I just wanted that in this book. On the other hand, I also liked how the epic love didn’t play out for Cress – at least not in the way she (and every dream filled teenage girl with a crush does) envisions it happening. I kind of like that she has to reconcile her perceptions with reality, and what she thought she knew, versus what she actually learns.

Thorne is just fucking charismatic and charming as hell. I would have been a pile of melted goo at his feet if he were a real person. I thought his character arc was really good as well. At the start, he’s this completely capable guy who doesn’t ever really ask for help to just about the polar opposite. Not to mention some of the best scenes and lines come out of him, post-accident.

I’d actually forgotten this was a SF/F book – well, I forgot just how SF it is. It’s been so long since I’ve been in this world and when I look at the art, or the covers, I forget that they’re are. I forget that they’re not just fantasy books, but SF ones and I love it. I’m a sucker for a good ole SF or dystopian, but I’m totally down for SFF books like this series. Combine my two favorite genres to read and I’ll be forever happy.

I’m mad at myself for waiting so long to read this, but on the other hand, I’m insanely glad I finally did. Maybe in another 4-6 years I’ll finally read Winter…after all, I now really want to know what happens next. I’ll probably add it to my next TBR list.